Georgia's Development Fund seeking to raise capital to implement new investment strategy, says Director

Besik Bugianishvili, the Executive Director of the Development Fund of Georgia, on Thursday said his office had started working with international development banks and foundations to raise capital and implement a new investment strategy.

Speaking to the Public Broadcaster, Bugianishvili said the Fund had its own financial sources from investment activities and dividends of the companies under its ownership. 

He said the ongoing negotiations with international development banks and foundations had led to the Fund expecting to receive loans as well as grants. 

To some extent, we are also talking to international commercial institutions to attract financial capital”, he said.

Bugianishvili also told the channel Vazil Hudák, the Vice-President of the European Investment Bank and one of the members of the Fund’s independent supervisory board, had “actively” helped the organisation to establish contacts on the international arena. 

Just a few days ago, we had communication with the European Long-Term Investors Association, an organisation that unites all development-oriented financial banks and funds in Europe. This is probably the most interesting segment for us. We believe that the relationship with them will be very fruitful for the Fund”, he said.

Bugianishvili added the Fund had already started working on preparing the application to become a member of the Association. 

We very much hope to become a member of this organisation. It would be completely impossible to take this step if Georgia did not have the [European Union membership candidate] status, which creates great and interesting opportunities for us”, he said.

The Development Fund of Georgia is a state investment fund, which operates on the basis of the Partnership Fund founded in 2011.

The Fund’s main objective is to attract and support private investors through participation at early stages of investment projects.